Bones (Dark Kingdom, #5) — Chapter no 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

MIA

I WAKE IN a dark room. I sit up and run my hands down my T-shirt. I’m still dressed, but my shoes and socks are gone. My hands roam along the bed next to me for my phone but don’t find it. Leaning to the other side, I find a nightstand and touch something that feels like a lamp. I twist the knob at the top, and it lights up the room.

Walls the color of a thunderstorm rolling in. Black hardwood floors with a dark gray area rug. A black four-post bed sits in the center. I lie on top of black silk sheets and matching pillowcases.

I get out of the bed and sway on my feet. Thick black curtains run along the far wall. I walk over, shoving them open to reveal an Olympic-size swimming pool and hot tub attached, but I can’t see much else. It’s too dark.

“How long was I asleep?” I ask myself through a yawn.

“Almost twelve hours.”

I spin around at the sound of his voice and place my hand on my chest as he enters a set of open double doors. “Dillan,” I breathe. “What are you doing here?”

“I live here,” he states, bringing a tray over to the side of the bed. He sets it down and then starts to walk over to me.

I stand like a statue, trying to remember what happened last. I was at the hospital. They discharged me … car ride … I closed my eyes just for a second—that’s the last thing I remember. “How did I …?” I stop that stupid question. There’s only one way I got into this house—he carried me and removed my socks and shoes. The thought makes my cheeks redden. I keep finding myself in vulnerable positions with him.

He stops before me and reaches out, running his hands down my side, and I hold my breath, hating that I like the way he’s always touching me.

“How do your ribs feel?”

My eyes lift to his when his hands pause, but he doesn’t pull them away.

He’s the first man to ever touch me at all, in the limo, California, here in his room. My heart races, and the blood rushes in my ears. I hope he doesn’t notice how my breath hitches at the contact. “Fine,” I lie. My side still hurts. “Why did you let me sleep for so long?”

“You needed it.” He steps back, his hands falling from my body.

The fact that he no longer touches me allows me to think clearly and helps me remember why I’m here, making my eyes narrow on him. “I need to be with my brother.”

“I just hung up with Haven. He’s not any worse, not any better. And you can’t go see him.”

I let out a long breath. “I don’t need your permission to do something.”

“Technically, I own you,” he says as if he’s talking about buying a car.

Like I’m something so insignificant that can be bought and sold like an object.

My blood instantly boils at those words. “Don’t say that.” I manage to

get out through gritted teeth.

“Or what?” He tilts his head.

This has been my life for twenty years. Men owning me. First my father, but then he sold me, hoping that some bastard would buy me and he could take over their fortune. I’m a card to be played. A toy to be used. Just because Dillan doesn’t share my blood doesn’t mean he has any less power over what I do, who I see, and where I go. I’m just as powerless with him as I have been all my life.

“That’s what I thought,” he says before turning his back to me and exiting the room.

I bite my lip and turn to face out the window again. I miss Italy. I didn’t realize how much I loved that prison. I spent most of my days in the pool.

Maybe that’s what I need. Silence.

I unlock the sliding glass door, walk outside and begin to remove my clothes. I need to feel free. I need to clear my head. This is the only place I have to do it.

BONES

I WALK BACK into my master suite to go take a shower. I’ve been in my study here at the house for the last twelve hours while she slept. I need to go to

Kingdom, but my ass could use a shower first. I go to enter the bathroom but stop when I look through the sliding glass door to see she is by the pool.

She has her back to me while she stands at the edge of the shallow end.

She reaches down and removes her shirt up and over her head. Her hair falls down, covering her bruised back. Then she pushes her shorts down her thin legs and kicks them to the side, exposing a black cotton thong.

I walk over to the sliding glass door and watch as she slowly walks down the steps, sinking her injured body into the water. It’s dark out, but the pool lights illuminate the water. She slowly sinks into it, holding her breath.

Pushing off the wall, not swimming very far and pops her head up, taking in a breath before turning around and coming back, knowing her body is in no condition to go all the way to the deep end.

She pops out again, her head back, and she pushes her dark hair from her face. I see her flinch at how sore her body must be while trying to take it easy. I should go out there and pull her out of it. Tell her that she’s not allowed to swim yet. Her body needs time to heal. But I don’t. Instead, I stand here watching her like a weirdo.

Her eyes open and lock on mine. She ducks into the water, covering her chest. I hate to tell her I’ve already seen her practically naked in that video her brother showed me.

I shove open the glass door and step outside into the hot night. “I’m going to go into Kingdom for a few hours. We’ll go up to the hospital to

grab the car when I get back.”

She frowns. “What car?”

“I assume you drove my car.” She tilts her head to the side. “The one I had parked at the beach house.” I have a Bentley Continental GT that I leave there. I’m quite glad that she drove it back. It just sits there and never sees daylight. It needs to be driven. She can drive here while she stays with me.

“Oh.” Her eyes lower, and drops of water run off her long lashes. “It’s

still there.”

“At the hospital, yes, I know.”

“No, it’s still in Malibu.”

I frown. “Then how did you get here?”

“Haven sent me their private jet. That’s why it took me so long to arrive.

I had to wait for it to pick me up in California.”

It’s only a little over an hour flight, and the drive time is about five hours.

But it would have been easier to drive than wait for the jet to arrive. “Why didn’t you just drive?” The keys were there hanging in the garage. I didn’t

want her to be stranded.

“I don’t know how,” she whispers.

“How do you not know how to drive?” I snort.

She still hovers under the water, right up against the side, shielding her body from me. Her arms still cover her breasts, and her hair floats around her like a black cloud. Her silvery-blue eyes meet mine. “I was never offered that opportunity of freedom.”

I run a hand through my hair. Jesus! Why didn’t Luca at least teach her these things? Everyday options that we take for granted. “I’ll teach you.” I decide. The woman needs to know how to drive a damn car.

Her eyes light up, and she stands to her full height, so the water comes to her chest instead of her neck. A smile so wide that it lights up her gorgeous face. Fuck, my dick twitches in my jeans. “You will?”

I clear my throat. “Of course. Everyone should know how to drive a car.”

She bites her bottom lip, and her eyes look up at me with a softness that makes my chest tighten. “Thank you, Dillan,” she whispers, and my breath catches at the way she says my name. It’s the first time without a bite. Plus, no one ever calls me by my name. It’s always Bones.

I wave her off. “I’ll be back in a few hours.” Then I turn and walk out of the bedroom, not even bothering with that shower. Because if I do, I’ll be jacking off in there imagining her topless in my pool.

_______________

I’M SITTING BEHIND my desk when Titan enters my office. “You’re here early this morning.” We haven’t even had our daily meeting in the conference room yet.

“What do you want?” I ask without even looking up at him.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asks, sitting down.

I place my elbows on the desk and glare at him. “Last chance. What do you want?”

He just smirks. “So Mia?” I sigh, knowing this conversation would come.

“Who knew that Luca had a little sister.”

Yeah, who the fuck knew? “I didn’t.” Lie. Even if I didn’t remember her, I knew she existed. I just never would have guessed she was a Bianchi.

Reaching up, he runs his hand down over his face. “What are you going to do with her?”

“Excuse me?” I ask, blinking. He makes it sound like she’s something I can just return.

“Well, the world has no idea she exists. How are you going to keep that

under wraps?”

I sit back in my seat.

“Look … by the way I saw you and Nite react to her running into the hospital, you two knew she existed. I’m not even going to ask how. But she’s obviously been in hiding. Now she’s out.” He spreads his tatted arms out wide. “The Bianchis have a lot of enemies—case in point, our friend is currently in a coma after being shot—and Mia making her presence known to the world could cause even more problems. For her. For you. The Bianchis in general.”

I never thought about that. Luca said she was to be used as a weapon, but what would happen if someone actually got their hands on her? Her father wouldn’t give a shit what happened to her. He proved that by selling her off to the highest bidder. She said he wants Kingdom, but the dots don’t line up. If someone else had bought her, who knows where she’d be right now.

He got his money already. Did her father send her back here because he knows I was the one who purchased her? Names were never used in the private auction. I didn’t have to sign anything. We paid our table fee in cash, and that was that. The wire transfer was untraceable. If someone were to leak any information about the auctions—you’d be killed. No questions asked. So that makes me wonder how they know I did it.

I try to tell myself she’s not my problem, but then I think of Luca. I can’t allow someone to use him against her like that. I can’t go to her brothers for help. They already gave her a timeline before they came after her again.

“Call a meeting,” I tell him. “The conference room in thirty. And text Nite. I want him there too.”

He nods and gets up without saying another word. Picking up my phone, I make a couple of phone calls.

An hour later, I walk into our conference room to see my brother, Titan, Cross, along with Nite already seated at the custom-made black table that easily sits twenty people. A skull is carved out of the middle, and Kingdom

is written in gold at each end. This is where we conduct all our business meetings. We’ve got jammers blocking any type of electrical devices in here.

“You’re late,” my brother announces, checking his watch.

I snort. Like he’s never been late for a meeting before. Hell, there were days that went by, and none of us even knew where he was.

“What’s this about?” he asks when I don’t acknowledge his previous

statement.

Cross gives a chuckle. “I can guess.”

Sitting at the head of the table, I toss some folders onto the center and speak. “We’ve got a problem.”

“Well, you’ll have to be a little more specific.” My brother laughs,

reaching out for one.

“The Bianchis,” I add.

Grave’s jaw sharpens, opening it up. “What about them?”

“Mia is meant to steal Kingdom,” I announce.

Silence falls over the room, and each one looks up at me. Then the Kings start to laugh, and even Nite smiles. The guy is mute. We all have our weapon of choice, and he’s picked silence. “How’s she going to do that

exactly?” Cross questions.

“She’s supposed to marry me,” I answer.

All laughter comes to a stop, and I lean back in my seat.

“Wait … what?” Grave asks, his eyes quickly scanning over the papers in front of him, double-checking it’s not a marriage license or something.

Making sure I haven’t lost my mind.

Cross shakes his head.

“You’re serious?” Titan sounds skeptical, not even bothering to pick his folder up.

I nod. “Luca came to me about four weeks ago. Showed me a video of

Mia. She had been sex trafficked—”

“Fuck,” Titan hisses, interrupting me.

“Told me she was being shipped to New York. I made a phone call, got an invite to an auction, and bought her,” I explain in the simplest way possible.

“Tell me you’re kidding.” Grave growls. “Why are you giving us medical records then?” He gestures to the open folder in front of him. “Who do they belong to?”

I go on. “I shipped her off to live in my Malibu home. Everything was going well. Then three days ago, Matteo and the twins somehow found her at my beach house. Told her to come back—her father wants Kingdom, and he’s going to use her to get it.”

Cross pushes his seat back and stands over by the floor-to-ceiling windows. Pulling his Zippo out, he starts fidgeting with it.

“Then ship her back,” Grave demands. “Somewhere they won’t fucking find her.”

That’s not going to work. “She refused them.” He snorts, not believing that. “When she told them no, they gave her three months to make me fall in love with her, marry her, and her dad will have Kingdom.”

Titan scoffs. “Shit don’t work that way.”

Grave places his elbows on the table and runs his hands through his hair.

“Unless she married Bones, and then he kills them both off.” He shrugs.

“Then he’s got a forged trust that leaves his shares of Kingdom over to him and of course whatever he makes up on Mia’s behalf.”

“It still doesn’t work that way,” Titan argues.

“It’ll work however John Bianchi wants to spin it,” Grave snaps at him.

“Look at what George did to Emilee.”

Titan’s jaw sharpens at the mention of his wife and her father. “You guys are looking at this the wrong way.” He shifts in his seat. “John has nothing if he doesn’t have Mia. So …” He lifts his hands out wide. “He can’t get what she doesn’t have access to.”

“Just what are you suggesting we do exactly?” Cross asks, spinning

around to face us.

“We take care of—”

“Don’t you dare say we kill her,” I interrupt him.

Titan sighs. “Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it.”

I ignore that comment. “No. We’re not killing her. She’s innocent.”

Grave snorts. “So she says.” My brother argues.

I fist my hands on the table. “She refused to return to Las Vegas after they assaulted her, and then three days later, Luca is shot. Don’t you think that’s a big coincidence?”

Nite just stands there, staring at the table, and I can see his mind trying to play catch up. See if there’s anything he missed.

“Wait a minute.” Grave lifts his finger. “Are you saying that you think Luca’s brother shot him to lure her back here?”

“That’s exactly what I think.” I nod.

“The Bianchis are ruthless,” Titan adds.

“Are these Luca’s medical records?” Grave asks, frowning and picking his folder up once again. “Did they fuck him up before they shot him?”

“No. They’re Mia’s.”

“What do you mean?” Cross growls. “And why do you have them?”

“I spoke with Lane. They beat her up and left her there at my beach house. Mia thinks that because she didn’t come running to me in Vegas, they went after the only person she loves.”

“So what do we do?” Cross asks, flipping his Zippo open and closed.

“It’s simple. Bones doesn’t get married. John can’t do shit without that connection,” Grave answers. “I mean, he’s not going to marry her.” He laughs like that’s absurd.

“Then you’re putting a timeline on Mia’s life,” Titan argues as if he cares if she dies. “If she was given three months, then what will happen at the end of that time?”

“We’ll worry about it then.” Grave shrugs, looking at me. “But in the meantime, I’d hide her so fucking well that even you forget where you put her.”

I sit down and sigh, knowing he’s right. I can’t protect her. Not like she needs. The more miles between us, the better. If she stays here, her brothers will think she’s just useless and kill her. If I send her away, they’ll think she’s useless and kill her. Or worse, sell her again.

“Hear me out,” Titan goes on. “What if he did marry her?”

Grave snorts, and Cross laughs.

“I’m serious,” he argues. “You marry her but have an airtight prenup. A spouse can only get a percentage of what you have once you get married.

He had Kingdom shares before he married her. Therefore, she can’t touch

it.”

“Too risky.” Cross shakes his head.

“Is that what you and Emilee did?” Grave arches a brow, looking at Titan. “Did you do an airtight prenup?”

“No,” Titan growls as if that’s ridiculous. “I married my wife because I love her, not because I was cornered.”

“Bones isn’t backed into a corner,” Grave argues. “For all we know, Mia is lying.” He points at me. “How many women have tried to get what we have? A lot. It’s not uncommon for women to use their pussy for a payday.”

A silence falls over the room while everyone stares at him. He arches a brow. “Are you all suggesting that April got pregnant on purpose?” he demands.

“You said it.” Titan shakes his head. “Not us.”

Grave shoves the papers off the table and starts to climb up on it to get to Titan, but Cross grabs the back of his shirt, yanking him back.

“You motherfucker—”

“Enough!” I shout, interrupting Grave and standing from my chair.

Titan sighs. “None of us think that April was trying to trap you.” He throws his hands up in surrender. “But this affects us all. If John gets one foot in, he will find a way to get it all.”

That’s why I told them. I’ve always been a very secretive person. What I do is no one else’s business, but this does include them. We are all equal partners. If one is attacked, we are all under attack.

“Maybe we’re looking at it from the wrong angle,” Cross says slowly, shoving Grave into his seat. “We find who went after Luca first. You said that Mia has a timeline?” He looks at me, and I nod. “Then we’ve got time there. But whoever shot Luca could be getting away as we speak. So let’s start there first and then circle back when need be.”

“Where do we start?” Grave asks, placing his hands in his hair. “We have nothing to go on.”

“Glass,” I answer when everyone looks at me. “That’s where he was shot. We’ve got surveillance. If no one saw anything, the cameras did.” I’ve been too busy since I brought Mia home from the hospital that I haven’t had the chance to go to Glass yet. I was going to watch the cameras there, but I can do it from here just as good.

We all enter my office, and I pull up the surveillance at Glass on my computer. After logging in and going back to yesterday, we watch it as the

screen goes black.

“Well, that’s convenient.” Cross sighs.

“Here …” I take a piece of paper from the black Kingdom stationery— it’s got a gold circle and K in the middle—and I write down an address.

“Titan, you and Nite go get him and bring him back here. We’ll meet you downstairs.”

“Got it.” Titan nods before he and Nite turn and exit my office.

My brother turns to face me. “You’ve never been that guy who thinks with his dick, so don’t start now.” Then he storms out.

“Ignore Grave,” Cross tells me, and I wave off his concern.

But little does he know, my dick is screaming pretty loud right now. And all I can think of is Mia lying naked in my bed underneath me with my hand wrapped around her throat again.